The handgun holster has gone through many stages of evolution from a simple leather pouch to sophisticated spring closed formed leather structures designed to protect valuable handguns, and in the case of law enforcement holsters to allow for rapid drawing by the officer alone. In many cases, these holsters are designed for complete concealment. Examples of such sophisticated leather holsters may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,346,827, 4,277,077, 4,270,680 and 4,255,067, assigned to the assignee of this invention.
For almost a century, fabric holsters have been manufactured, particularly for military use. Typical materials used were duck or canvas, or webbing of the general type used in the well known military web belt. Examples of such holsters appear in U.S. Pat. Nos. 787,852 and 1,102,195.
Fabric holsters of the canvas or web material type were functionally acceptable in carrying a handgun, but were unattractive, show wear, and have interior surfaces which tend to remove any surface finish of the handgun. They particularly did not form about the handgun, as does leather, and therefore allowed for relative movement of the handgun in the holster thereby promoting wear of the material and of the surface of the handgun.
Recently composite fabric-foam-fabric materials have become available which eliminate the disadvantages noted for previous holster fabrics. These materials include an outer fabric such as ballistic nylon, a closed cell foam layer which provides resiliency and a degree of stiffness, and an inner fabric layer which may be coated, but is nonabrasive with respect to the handgun finish. This type of fabric composite has, since becoming available, been adopted by holster makers by reason of its inherently desirable properties.
Loop and pile fasteners, commonly known by the trademark "Velcro", have become known for use in holsters as represented by U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,466 exhibiting a degree of adjustability of straps.